All industry studies carried out by SearchMetrics, Backlinko, and SEO PoweSuite to determine Google 200 ranking factors found out that backlinks, content, user experience and technical factors, such as speed and mobile friendliness, were the most critical ranking signals used by search engines.

Now the question is, how do you get or create high-quality backlinks to your domain and website content?

The answer is simple, use the right link building strategies.

It is true that finding backlinks is not an easy task, but using a combination of the right link building strategies, patience and consistency your efforts will eventually bore fruits.

The good news is that I have already done most of the research for you, and compiled 10 highly actionable link building strategies that you can use to get backlinks even today.

Keywords, page speed, content, user experience and website security are also other critical signals, and you can find detailed information on each and many others in these two resources: the ultimate guide to on-page SEO and the definitive guide to off page SEO.

Therefore, you cannot choose to work link building strategies SEO only and isolate the other SEO signals because all are important and have an interdependent effect on each other.

Want to learn more about link building strategies, use the two books below to find more in-depth information.

What is link building?

Link building is the process of creating and getting high-quality backlinks to your website content and domain.

A backlink is a hyperlink that links a web resource, such as a web page to another webpage. For example, if another blogger likes this guide and refers his/her readers to it by mentioning and linking to it within the post that is backlink.

Search engines believe that a page or post with many high-quality backlinks is a signal that the page is essential, and has relevant information, which deserves to rank on search engines.

Therefore, the process of acquiring quality backlinks to your website using the right link building strategies, such as email outreach and content promotions is called link building.

Ten years ago link building was easy and fast, but the 2018 landscape is different because this process requires creativity, persistence, networking, consistency and strong social skills just as Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s Webspam team puts it “link building is sweat plus creativity.”

Thus, the landscape of link building changes with time, as shown in these two articles here and here. All that is important now is to know the link building strategies that still in today’s 2018 as explained in this post.

Did you know that there over 3.9 billion internet users in the world per day who make more than 1.3 million Google searches per day?

You want to reach these one billion plus customers who go to look for information in search engines, right?

If yes, then use the right link building strategies, which will earn you high-quality backlinks, and this will encourage search engines to showcase your products and services to those searchers.

c) Industry case studies:

All SEO industry case studies, such as SearchMetrics, StoneTemple, Backlinko Goole 200 ranking factors and SEO PoweSuite have reached unanimous findings that backlinks are one of the most critical ranking signals used by search engines.

For example, a recent study by Backlinko on Google 200 ranking factors found out that all domains featured in Google’s first page SERP had more than 200 domains (backlinks) referring to them as shown in the image below.

d) Backlinks act as votes

Think about it we cannot blame Google for assuming that a page, post or domain with many links referring to it signifies valuable, useful and credible information because this is just how we operate as humans.

These links are votes of confidence, which helps to distinguish authoritative sites from spammy ones and newbie sites.

Having a high PA and DA means that you will not struggle to rank in search engines in future or be known by your customers because you will have an established authority already.

f) High-quality backlinks drive traffic and more visibility to your site

Remember that Google uses hyperlinks or the so-called URLs to find new web pages and content.

Therefore, if a URL from your website exists in another more prominent site with a high PA and DA and already enjoying Google traffic, then you will be helping Google to find your content.

Thus, you will get ranked faster because the backlink from the authoritative site acts as a vote of confidence, which tells Google that other authority sites with higher PA and DA think you deserve some spotlight because you offer value.

h) Backlinks build positive brand image and customer loyalty

Getting high-quality backlinks from other authoritative sites is equal to receiving a direct recommendation to the clients and audience of that site.

For example, if another blogger links back to one of my blog post, he/she is simply referring his/her customers to other similar trusted resources on my website.

Types of Links

There are three major types of backlinks: natural, manual and self-created in link building SEO.

a) Natural links

These are backlinks that you receive without any effort from your side, such as contacting the editor or sharing the article with them.

For example, they come across your article, read it and leave a hyperlink in their editorial content.

I know you must be thinking they are the easiest types of backlinks to get, but no.

Yes, these types of links are the most ethical and SEO friendly, but you will need to write skyscraper content earn them.

b) Manual links

These are backlinks that you earn or get by doing some manual tasks, such as email outreach.

You have to contact other relevant website owners, bloggers and online entrepreneurs in your niche sharing your content and asking them to link to your content ethically as I will explain in the link building strategies below.

c) Self-created links

These are backlinks that you create yourself by carrying out several tasks, such as commenting on other blogs, submitting guest posts, submitting articles to directories and acquiring forum signatures.

What are the characteristics of High-Quality Backlinks?

So are all backlinks equal, and do they drive the same importance in search engines?

The answer is NO. Some links are valuable and more important than others, and these are called high-quality good SEO links, which you should aim to get at all times.

Therefore your mission of using these ten link building strategies is to get backlinks with the following characteristics.

a) Has a keyword-rich anchor text

This is the text that the editor or author giving the link will write before they add the hyperlink.

You are safest when the referring domain uses a text that matches the keywords reflected in the content they are linking to from your website.

For example, if another authoritative site linked to this post with the anchor text “link building guide.” that would be a high-quality backlink than if they used general terms, such as “link,” “click here,” “guide” and “visit” among others.

Generic anchor text

Keyword-rich anchor text

b) Co-citations or neighboring words relate to the anchor text

Google and any other search engine have a strict policy on spamming, and this is why they will look at the words and phrases surrounding the link anchor text to find out if they are related.

The higher the relationship this makes the backlink more quality and essential in Google’s eyes.

10 Link Building Strategies for 2018

1. Write Killer Content

Yes, content is king, and it will always be one of the most crucial link building strategies because your customers and readers only stick around as long as you are providing solutions to their problems.

So how do you use content marketing as a link building technique?

a) Write killer SEO content

Always remember this, no want will give a backlink to sub-standard content, products, and resources.

And this the secret in link building strategy, which brings us to one of the fastest ways to build links through producing skyscraper content, which is ten times better than any other out there.

This is content that is original, keyword-rich, well-researched, long form and detailed to answer all questions from your readers.

Who wants to share too shallow and content with countless errors? No one of course!

Visual content: This is content with images, diagrams, infographics, charts and any other visual Take an example of this infographic with over 2.7 thousand backlinks.

List posts: These are posts that provide numbered lists of tips, tools, techniques, myths, and reasons among others. Look at this example on 21 SEO techniques, which has generated over 5.3 thousand backlinks.

Original research and case study data: These are detailed research reports that conduct real studies and come up with conclusive results. For example, this industry case study on Google ranking factors has generated over 3.3 backlinks.

Ultimate guides: These are guides that cover everything on a given topic, such as the definitive guide to starting an online business. Readers love to find all relevant information in one location instead of moving from one position to the next. For example, this guide has generated over 1.3 backlinks.

2. Find and outreach to “likely linkers”

“Likely linkers” are people who have linked to similar content from your competitors and other websites in your niche.

These can be your competitors active and engaged readers or other market influencers interested in the type of content, products, and services on your website.

Important note: Before you can search for other “likely linkers” anywhere, the ones to begin with are influencers, brands and products you have mentioned within the content. For instance, if you mentioned a market influencers, such as Neil Patel and Brian Dean, then go ahead and share your content with them. If your content is good these mentions are likely to give you a backlink.

Step one: Run a Google search with your target keyword

For example, if you have written a definitive guide on “link building” that you want to create high-quality backlinks for, all you have to do is first enter that keyword on Google and run a search.

Step Two: Measure PA and DA with MozBar of the SERP results

Let me first remind you why this is important.

When we were looking at the characteristics of high-quality backlinks, we found out that one of them is that they must come from authoritative sites with high PA and DA.

Therefore, the reason for measuring PA and DA in this link building strategy is to make sure that you are targeting the right backlink sources.

Important Note: Only pick the likely linkers with authoritative PA and DA from the report.

Step four: Find the email addresses of those Likely Linkers

Next, all you have to do in this link building strategy is find the email addresses of the editors, writers, and owners of the websites or products you identified in step three above.

There are several tools you can use in this link building strategy step, such as Hunter.io and VoilaNorbert.

VoilaNorbert is good when you are looking for a specific person who you know the name and the domain name they work for, while Hunter.io is suitable for general email searches in a given domain.

Step five: Send an outreach personalized email

Finally, after you find email the email addresses of the “likely linkers,” send the person a personalized message like the one below.

Remember you are not imposing or asking directly for a backlink, but you are leaving room for the person to decide if your content deserves a backlink or not.

Keep an excel sheet to monitor and follow up on the success of this technique. The best link building strategies for your website will be those that yield the best results and stress you out the least.

3. Pitch to Authors of Curated Resource Pages

In this link building strategy, curated lists are content pages that pull together similar information, such as resource pages, round up posts and “best of” list posts.

So your aim in this link building strategy is to let the author know that you have a similar resource on that specific keyword targeted by the resource page, which they can add to the list.

For example, best SEO tools 2018 and 10 of the best marketing courses you should enroll today among others. Look at an example here and email outreach resources

Step one: Run a Google search with a combination of the following search phrases.

6. Testimonials

As a blogger, website owner or any other type of online entrepreneur, there are many tools and resources that you use on a daily basis.

For example, you can leave a testimonial on your hosting company, such as SiteGround, theme Companies, such as Elegant Themes or Email marketing company, such as Convertkit expressing your experience after using their products.

So how is this a link building strategy?

If you are lucky for your testimonial to be featured on their website, that is a backlink. See the examples below.

7. Be a guest Blogger to gain backlinks

In this link building strategy, guest blogging is the process of publishing an article on another website other than your own with higher authority and readership than yours.

For instance, if a write a blog post and it is published in Forbes that is a backlink.

These narratives developed after people began to use black hat SEO strategies, such as paying to get guest posts. However, the truth is that guest posting is still relevant in 2018, and it can attract high-quality backlinks to your website.

To succeed in this link building strategy, you must do it the right way without becoming a victim of search engine penalties or use black hat SEO techniques.

Step one: Find guest posting opportunities

There are many methods you can use here, such as Google search, image reverse search and influencer method among others.

In this example, I will use the Google search method to illustrate how this link building strategy works.

Depending on their response in this step, you can continue to step four below if their reply is positive and gives you the go-ahead on your idea.

Step four: Write and submit the post

Finally, write the post and do follow up once the editor has given you the go-ahead. See more tips here.

When your guest post is published, you will get a byline and a backlink at the beginning, and the end of the post is referring the audience to your website or full bio like the one in the example below.

8. Use HARO to get backlinks

This is an authority new aggression site that helps reporters to gather information from people all over the world.

So what happens is that you receive three emails per day from HARO, and you a have the option to reply with relevant pitches and information to the ones that are relevant to your niche. Look at the sample below.

Step one: Sign up for an account at HARO

Before you can use this link building technique, you must have an account at HARO.

Step two: Choose the most suitable HARO inquiry

Check your email every day three times per day to access emails received from HARO.

Filter the ones that are relevant to your niche and write a pitch in response.

Step Three: Contribute

To complete this link building strategy, choose the best question and write your pitch to the reporter in response.

The goal here is to highlight any relevant content related to the pitch on your website and also leave a bio of who you are and where full information about you can be found, such as your website.

Sample of HARO Inquiry

Sample of HARO Response

Step four: Earn the backlink

If your pitch will be high quality, you can earn a backlink in two significant ways.

Firstly, the reporter is likely to add a link in their content referring readers back to your website.

Secondly, you will receive a byline at the end of the article as one of the contributors as shown in the example below.

9. Use Branded Techniques

These can be branded images, inforgraphics, blog posts or anything else which is unique and an original creation from your websites.

Every time you create an excellent piece of content or find a new exciting approach give it a name. See the examples below:

The answer is simple, every time other people link back to your technique, they will link back to its origin, which is most likely your site or an original piece of information that brought about the method.

The more you set your brand apart from other competitors in the market, the higher the chances of people mentioning you every time they borrow information from your site.

10. Get self-created backlinks through content promotion

This final link building strategy is a powerhouse of several activities you should consider doing in your get backlinks approach.

Think about it there is a high possibility that no one is linking back to your content because they do not know that it exists and they have not come across it yet.

What are the best tools for Link building?

ConvertKit and Boomerang: Convertkit for sending bulk images and Boomerang for timing emails. Remember that you must send your outreach emails at the right time for them to have a high open rate.

Hunter.io or VoilaNorbert: For finding email addresses and other content information for likely linkers and influencers in your niche. If you are a heavy user of the Email outreach technique, consider using a tool like Buzzstream.

Ahrefs: This is a powerhouse tool that will help you monitor mentions, backlinks and other competitor data related to backlinks and your niche market. Alternatives are Buzzsumo and Moz open site explorer.

Authority spy: This tool will help you find influencers in your niche. Remember this is the people who you want to earn quality backlinks from.

SEMrush: Use this tool for market research, keyword research and other activities related to SEO link building.

Conlusion

Building backlinks is not always easy, but do you know what, you need to begin the work today with the hope that your efforts will bore fruits tomorrow.

The truth is that there is no secret to building quality backlinks quickly and efficiently in the world of white hat SEO.

This is not to say that it is impossible, NO! It simply means that it takes time, consistency, persistence and using the right link building strategies.

The golden rule is that little creativity, research and identifying the right backlink opportunities in your niche will finally get you there.

The good news is that the effort and perseverance are worthy because it will drive free search engine traffic to your website.

Now over to you!

Put these ten strategies into use in your link building strategy, and you will begin seeing results in the next three months or so.

A quick reminder, before you sweat out for these link building strategies you need to get your site ready for carrying out these ten on-page SEO activities and also these four off page SEO best practices.

Want to learn more about link building strategies, use the two books below to find more in-depth information.

Feel free to leave a comment below asking a question, sharing your own personal process of keyword research or even better provide a suggestion of a post you would like me to write about.

Did you like the post? Kindly pin it or share it.

My name is Hildah Mwende. I am a freelance writer and a coach. My expertise falls in the following subject areas, but it is not limited to them: WordPress, Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing. Find a comprehensive list and description of all my competencies and specialties here.

“If you are born poor, it’s not your mistake, but if you die poor, it’s your mistake”Bill Gates.

Very true, right?

No one wants to live poor, but the problem is that most people are not willing to dream big and take on risky and challenging opportunities, such as learning how to start an online business.

Yes, building an online business takes time and effort. Nevertheless, the good news is that the returns of starting an online business are worth all the handwork, perseverance, learning and sleepless nights.

For example, these wealthiest internet billionaires will tell you that they did not succeed in their online businesses because they are too good than everyone else, but consistency and making the right decisions on how to start an online business built them the riches.

The good thing about online businesses is that anyone can start them because the internet has a wide range of opportunities for everyone-young or old, rich or poor among others.

Therefore, why not learn how to start an online business today? Begin writing your story to billions today by using the 7 steps discussed in this post to start an online business today.

Use the three books below to gain more information on starting, building and growing an online business into a multi-billion empire the right way.

Therefore, starting an online business is one of those unique and the best decisions you can ever make in your life because anyone can become wealthy on the internet with unlimited opportunities and global customer base.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Starting an Online Business

Just like there are two sides to every coin, online businesses have a brighter and a darker side.

Most people assume that online businesses are either a pack of risks or a bundle of success and many profits.

However, staying on the two extremes is risky because a wise online entrepreneur would be safer if they choose to balance the pros and cons in their business model.

Understanding the advantages of online businesses will help you to make them strengths and opportunities while knowing the disadvantages will help you to place control and preventive measures on obstacles that are likely to ruin your online business.

ADVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

Global market access

Takes time to produce results and this requires patience and perseverance.

Offers limitless freedom and flexibility

The business idea is prone to duplication.

Has high scalability

Saturated marketplace and high competition.

Low costs and high-profit margins

Insecurity is still high in the online space.

Low startup capital, which makes it easy for anyone with a computer and internet.

No face-to-face interaction or any form of interpersonal communication with customers.

You serve an unlimited number of customers and can offer universal products and services.

To start an online business, you require a high level of knowledge, skills and management discipline for success.

Unlimited business opportunities with very little or no barrier to entry into the niche market.

24/7 accessibility by customers

Ability to automate saves time and makes the process easy

How to Start An Online Business in 7 Steps

Step one: Find a need

A need can be a gap in the market, a problem that needs a solution or an opportunity that will be relevant in the future.

There over 2 billion entrepreneurs on the internet and some of these have created online business models that meet specific needs fully.

For this reason, you cannot assume that you will grow your online business into an empire by assuming that need A, B and C among others exist.

This brings to the point that you must use the 5 strategies below to identify viable needs in the process of learning how to start an online business

a) Market Research

Market research is the process of identifying common problems, questions, and topics of discussions that raise interest in a given online business topic.

Before you start an online business, there are many tools, platforms, and resources both free and paid you can use to carry out market research.

Firstly, you can use forums and niche communities, such as Quora and Reddit. Questions or contributions with a high number of comments, upvotes and replies imply that there is a gap in the topic, which you can fill.

Secondly, use social media search, such as Facebook groups, Twitter search and Pinterest viral pins among others. A question, post or tweet that receives high engagement (retweets, shares, comments, and likes) show that a gap and a ready audience is willing to participate in discussion related to that topic.

Finally, use data collection tools, such as Typeform to create surveys, polls and other campaigns where you can ask people questions directly and receive their feedback on a given topic.

Follow the link below to get a detailed explanation with pictures and how-to guide to using the above market research strategies.

Competitors are online entrepreneurs who have already created businesses in your target market and serving your target audience.

Competitor analysis is essential before you start an online business since these audiences have already interacted with your competitor’s products, you can find a need/gap from their feedback in the following ways.

Firstly, visit customer review sites, such as GoogleMyBusiness and TrustPilot. Look for reviews with complaints, recommendations and any conditional responses like this “I loved your product, but…”, “if you would do this….” Those gaps, dissatisfaction, and complaints are the gaps you can use to start an online business that solves them and better than that of your competitor.

Secondly, visit social media profiles and business pages of those competitors and monitor the discussions raised by their audience. Look for recommendations and questions with high engagement to find a need.

Thirdly, use several competitors analysis tools, such as SemRush, Alexa, Ahrefs, Social Mention and Buzzsumo to carry out comprehensive SWOT analysis in their SEO, social media and content marketing strategies. All this is to find areas they are underperforming in because these signify a gap/need in the market you can fill by starting a better online business.

Keywords are the search words, phrases, and sentences that people put in search engines to find information.

For example, if you want to find information on weight loss you are likely to use the following search phrases, “weight loss pills,” “weight loss tips for pregnant women” and “weight loss for men” among others.

In online businesses, some keywords have high search volume and competition than others.

Therefore, a market or topic with many keywords with enough search volume and low competition is what you are looking for as a need in the market before you start an online business.

A niche is the specific target market directly related to the need, solution and type of business above.

There are over 1000+ niches on the internet with the different target audience, needs, and models of success.

Thus, getting specific on one niche market before you start an online business will help you to scale down your marketing efforts to resources, tools, and strategies that work in that niche.

This also simplifies the process of market research and growing your business because it helps you to focus on the needs of a specific market as opposed to being a “jack of traits, and a master of none.”

Step Three: Create a website for your online business

Other online businesses and your competitors have websites, so you need one also before you start your online business.

You are in control unlike in other platforms where rules change, such as social media networks.

Creating one even with zero coding expertise is easy. Thus, you do not have any excuse for not having one before you start an online business.

81% of customers search online before making a purchase; a website will make your business products and services accessible to those customers on the internet.

A website gives your online business credibility

You can sell products directly from your website which will accelerate your financial returns in your online business.

You will use it as a tool for communication and information, which will build brand awareness and engagement.

A website is always accessible 24/7 which makes it convenient.

A website will give you broad audience access both local and global.

A website Provides a medium for you to showcase your products, skills, expertise, and services as you start your online business.

It improves customer service and saves time because it is accessible anytime from anywhere in the world.

Four things you need before you build a website for your online business

Domain Name: This will be the name of your company that people will enter on search engines to find you, such as sproutmentor.com, Amazon.info, Canada.edu among others.

Web hosting: This is a hosting company and package that will provide you with servers and other storage resources where your website will store data that can get retrieved every time customers request a resource from your site. For example, shared hosting provided by BlueHost or cloud hosting from SiteGround.

Website platform: This is the environment where you shall build and manage your website’s themes, plugins, pages, codes and content among other resources. You can use a content management system (CMS), such as WordPress, a website builder, such as Wix or code from scratch.

Know the type of website you want to create: There are many types of sites with different designs, themes, and Therefore, you must choose the kind that suits your buyer personal, USP, niche, and business model best.

Step Four: Perform search engine optimization (SEO)

Can be likened to performing general cleaning on the interior of a house as you start an online business.

Therefore, there are all those internal activities you carry out on a website to make it user-friendly and easily found by search engines.

For example, writing good content, having fast page load, coherent site architecture, friendly URLs, correct use of HTML tags, optimizing images and submitting the property to search engines among others.

Follow the link below to find a detailed article on this category of SEO.

Step Six: Promote your online business

You may create the best website design on the internet or come up with the best unique products and online business ideas, but if your ideal customers do not know about them all that is in vain.

For this reason, promoting your online business is the process of communicating with your target audience with the aim of building brand awareness, driving traffic, increasing engagement and influencing their buying behaviors.

As you start an online business, you can use free means to promote it, such as social media marketing or paid methods, such as advertisements.

You can only make money from your online business when you have customers. Those buyers will only purchase from you when they know the USP of your business.

Therefore, use the right business promotion methods to get your business model and solution out there to as many audiences as possible on the internet.

Engage with your audiences on social media and directly from your website. Respond to their comments, emails and answer their questions to build brand loyalty and reliance.

Look for new opportunities for expansion or even transition. Do not be afraid to expand or change to new better directions along the way because the goal is creating the best online business ideas.

Build a brand through having a logo, favicon, on brand colors, typography, clear target audience and remaining consistent with your message and purpose. Most customers love to be associated with brand identities.

Monitor your competitors to learn from them and also create new opportunities from their failures. Using your competitors as your case studies will reduce your learning curve and accelerate your curve to success.

Provide exceptional content and value to keep your sales and customer base consistent. Customers will walk away when your value diminishes or when you become dull and redundant. Thus, you must always be creative and innovative enough to keep them engaged with new content all the time.

Build a sales funnel to have a clear picture of your target audience buying process. This will help you to identify obstacles along the way in your sales funnel and eliminate them before losses occur.

Conlusion

It is over to you!

I hope that this guide has given you all the relevant information you need to start an online business and increase your chances of becoming a billionaire in the next one year.

The internet has an opportunity for everyone, take time to research and find a prospect that suits your needs, budget and present situation best.

Use the three books below to gain more information on starting, building and growing an online business into a multi-billion empire the right way.

Feel free to leave a comment asking a question or sharing any extra information related to starting an online business.

Sharing is caring. Did you like the guide, kindly share or pin it.

My name is Hildah Mwende. I am a freelance writer and a coach. My expertise falls in the following subject areas, but it is not limited to them: WordPress, Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing. Find a comprehensive list and description of all my competencies and specialties here.

The reason is simple; because your business is not the only one on the internet trying to rank on search engines.

For instance, WordPress users produce more than 1 million posts per day, which means that over 1000 blog posts were published one minute ago just before you finished reading this sentence.

You should be surprised by these statistics because WordPress only powers about 25% websites on the web. Thus, the amount of content published on the internet daily is higher because the rest 75% websites hosted on other platforms are also producing more content daily.

In this sea of competition, a new website or online business will look like a small fish surrounded by sharks and whales who have mastered all on page SEO techniques.

So the question is, how do you manage to start and grow a successful online business in such a competitive environment? The answer is simple, be a pro at on-site SEO best practices.

Below are five reasons why SEO is still relevant in 2018, and why it will never die anytime soon.

A source of free organic traffic: If you can get your content to rank high on search engines, your website will get free targeted organic traffic from the right people looking for the information on your site.

Improves website usability: Creating a website, which complies with all on page SEO techniques best practices discussed in this article is also a way of making more user-friendly websites. If users enjoy your site, then this will increase your profits and sales too.

Competitive advantage: Some websites perform better than others in the same niche all because others are good in SEO and other digital marketing activities than others. Take advantage of SEO best practices to outdo your competitors. Moreover, your competitors are doing it, why not do it too?

Builds customer insight and brand loyalty: Remember that SEO is not a one-time activity but an ongoing process. In this case, staying consistent will build brand loyalty from customers and also help your business to understand them better.

On-page SEO ranking factors involve everything that is related to individual web pages, such as their content, URL, links, loading time, images, keywords, sitemaps and architecture among others as explained in this post.

On the other hand, off-page SEO involves all external factors that search engines look at, such as link building, social media networks and user signal among others.

10 Of The Best On-page SEO techniques For Newbies

1. Content

‘Content is king,’ I know you have already heard this common phrase.

At the top of on-page SEO checklist, content is one of the most important on-page SEO technique you should care about.

Good content affects three ranking factors: bounce rate, dwell time on page and click-through rates.

Providing long-form content that is well-researched and error-free increases dwell time on a page because readers spend more time reading the content and other related articles.

Additionally, providing content with attention-grabbing headlines on a consistency basis increases the click-through rates of the content.

This article on how to use keywords in your content will give you all the tricks you need to know about keywords, such as dropping a keyword in the first 100 words of your post and also adding it in heading tags.

i) Uses attention grabbing headlines

If you want your content to have high open rates, CTRs and social media shares, practice the habit of writing great headlines.

You cause several tools, such CoSchedule Headline Analyzer to test your headlines. Also, you can use this article to find out more tips and hacks on how to write better headlines to boost your on-page SEO metrics.

2. Keywords

On page SEO success begins with using the right keywords because it is all about writing relevant content, which will be noticed by Google and your readers.

A keyword is a phrase, word or query that users enter on the search box of search engines and other websites, such as e-commerce stores to find information.

In this regard, in on-site SEO, keywords act as a compass in your SEO and content marketing strategy because they will help you understand what content performs well among your audience and search engines ranking algorithm.

There are three types of keywords: head, body and long tail as shown in the summary table below.

Keyword Category

Words

Search Volume

Competition

CTR

Head

1

High

high

low

Body

2-3

Medium

Medium

Low to Medium

Long tail

3+

Low

low

High

3 quick tips to on page SEO keyword research technique

a) Use Long Tail Keywords

From the table above you can tell that the best keywords to use in on-site SEO are long tail keywords because they have low completion and high CTR.

Yes, these keywords have low search volume, but they are the most profitable because they reflect the intent of customers at the buying stage.

b) Match keywords with your audience needs

The purpose of most on page SEO techniques is to give users the best content, and this is always the primary aim of search engines.

To succeed in this on page SEO technique, you must carry out keyword research because every niche has different keywords and audience needs.

For instance, the search queries used by the audience in the fitness niche are different from those used by readers from the marketing niche.

c) Use the right tools for better results

To win the game of on-page SEO techniques, you must use the right SEO tools.

On the other hand, you can use paid tools, such as SemRush, KwFinder, LongTailPro, Jaaxy, and Keyword Tool. The good thing about a paid tool is that they give robust results than free tools and you can do all keyword research from a single dashboard.

3. Images

Remember the common saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words”?

Our brains retain 80 % of the content we see and 20% content we read. This means that our minds process visuals six times faster than text as shown in the image below.

8 characteristics of SEO friendly image

a) Find and use the right images

Every image you use on your website and content must serve the right on-site SEO purpose.

Thus, to meet this on page SEO technique, images should be related to the text message, and act as a reinforcement, not a replacement.

Additionally, you should strive to use copyright free pictures. I know there are many free stock photo websites out there where you can get many images for free, but where possible use original and high-quality images to take your SEO further to the next level.

See the image below to see an example of how you can submit a sitemap in Bing search engine.

10. Site Architecture

Site architecture SEO is all about developing websites that provide a secure and efficient user experience.

Thus, to meet this on page SEO technique, your readers must be able to find content and other resources efficiently on your website to improve their search engine experience.

Below are some on-page SEO factors you should put into consideration to meet this on-site SEO requirement on your website.

Responsive: A good site must be responsive to take the shape of different devices, such as desktop, smartphones, and tablets among others. There are several Chrome Extensions, such as User Agent Switcher that you can use to test if your site is responsive. Moreover, you can use free online tools, such as Responsinator to measure if your website is responsive or not.

Consistency: The ability to remain consistent with the original site design will help search engines to crawl your website better in the long-term.

Internal linking: Internal links help to establish site architecture because they help users and search engines to find related content on your website.

Easy navigation: Use menus, widgets, tags, buttons and any other navigation shortcuts to direct users to different sections of your website efficiently.

Use SSL certificates for secure browsing: Search engines hate websites with spam and other insecure connection problems. Installing SSL certificates and HTTP protocols will help to give search engines a signal that your site is secure for users.

WWW or no-WWW: You can decide if you want your website address to have WWW or not to have it, such as sproutmentor.com and www.sproutmentor.com. All this depends on your preference, but some SEO experts believe that a website address with WWW is more SEO friendly as explained in these two articles here and here.

Conlusion

I hope that this guide was informative and of help to you. I gave it numerous hours of research just for you.

Now it’s over to you to implement these on-page SEO best practices on your content, website architecture, content, URLs, links, page speed, keyword research and HTML tags.

It is possible that you have made some past mistakes in these factors. Don’t be discouraged correct them slowly until you set your SEO strategy right.

Remember that SEO is an ongoing activity and not a one-time activity

If you are starting an online business, there is no reason why you should ignore SEO no matter how small or irrelevant your business is because every company with an online presence must care about SEO.

Feel free to leave a comment below asking a question, sharing the on-page SEO techniques you enforce in your online business or even better provide a suggestion of a post you would like me to write about.

Did you like the post? Kindly pin it or share it.

My name is Hildah Mwende. I am a freelance writer and a coach. My expertise falls in the following subject areas, but it is not limited to them: WordPress, Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing. Find a comprehensive list and description of all my competencies and specialties here.

On page SEO refers to all aspects related directly to your website internal factors, such as its design, content, speed, and architecture among others.

On the other hand, off page SEO are those external signals that show how others perceive your site or online business, such as trust, user experience and social media reputation among others.

Therefore, on page SEO factors can be likened to cleaning the inside of the house while off page SEO techniques equal to cleaning its compound and other surrounding neighborhoods.

Thus, to gain maximum benefit of SEO best practices, you must take care of on page SEO optimization before taking on off page SEO techniques.

But why should you care about off page SEO techniques?

If you want free search engine traffic and most importantly if you want the content you write in your site to rank on the first pages of search engine results pages (SERP), then you should care about SEO.

Therefore, as long as these searches exist and continue to increase daily, there is a high chance of ranking on SERP first position as long as you take care of all on site and off site SEO activities the right way.

Want two book that will teach you how to perform SEO as an expert even you are a newbie? The three below have all the information you need for that.

Some SEO marketers translated these technical search algorithms used by search engines into simple, actionable ranking factors guidelines, which they grouped into on page and off page SEO best practices.

The primary goal of search engines has always been to return the best results to the searcher. To do so, their web crawlers do not only look at on-page factors but also at what other people think about your website, which brings us to these four reasons why off-page SEO is essential.

Acts like a gauge: Off-page SEO gives Google and other search engines a picture of how other people, especially your users perceive your website. If they are loving and sharing your content, then this signal tells Google that you are trustworthy and deserves some spotlight.

Business exposure: The whole idea behind off-page SEO is to create a situation where the internet in a global village. Taking care of all off-page SEO factors is opening a door for search engines to market your website worldwide.

Ranking in SERP results: Every blogger, website owner, and any other online entrepreneur dreams to rank on page one of Google. The bad news is that there is no easy way or shortcut to this, but you have to sweat for on site and off site SEO ranking factors. Once you set the two right, there is a high possibility of ranking on page one of any search engines as long as you remain consistent in providing value.

Improves page rank: If you woo search engines with your prowess at off-page SEO, you will get more backlinks and higher ranking, which will eventually improve your Page Rank, a critical factor in SEO.

4 of the Best Off Page SEO Techniques

1. Links

What are backlinks and why are they important?

Links are the hyperlinks, which help search engines to find related pages and content on the web.

A backlink is a link from your website which is found on another site on the internet. For example, a blog post link from Forbes found in Huffington post website that is a backlink.

Building backlinks is vital in off-page SEO techniques because it tells search engines that your site has relevant information since other people on the internet are linking to it in their website content, social media profiles, community forum discussions and other bookmarking sites.

Think about it, why would an external site add a link from your site to their website unless you have top-notch content and products/services?

What are the characteristics of quality backlinks?

Are all backlinks equal, relevant and essential in link building off page SEO techniques?

No, all backlinks are not equal because some bring higher improved search ranking and website traffic benefits than others.

It is easy to assume that link building is one of the simplest off page SEO techniques.

Yes, sometimes you will earn links naturally from other bloggers, website owners, and other online entrepreneurs, but you also need to be vigilant in asking for them.

Therefore, some backlinks will come naturally with little or zero effort from your part, but if you want to get maximum benefits of this off page SEO techniques, you must learn the best ethical strategies of creating and getting backlinks.

Content: Write fresh, long forms, sharable and original SEO content that will attract backlinks.

Reach out to Likely linkers: These are people who link to your competitor’s They are likely to love yours too as long as it adds extra value to them.

Ask to be featured in curated lists: If you have an ultimate guide to a given subject, such as SEO, you can find resource pages, round up posts and “best of” pages, and ask the authors of this page to consider adding your content in the lists.

Use Broken links opportunities: Find broken links in websites with many outbound links, and ask the author to use your link as a replacement.

Link reclamation: Find people who mention your brand, products and even use content and images from your site without linking back to them. Email them again asking them to add a link to content borrowed from your site to reclaim your links.

Testimonials: Leave testimonials on websites of tools and resources that you use, and the company will publish it and leave a link back to your site.

Guest blogging: Find authority sites in your niche that are already ranking in search engines, and pitch ideas to them. If you are lucky for your guest blog to be published on their website, you will receive a backlink refereeing their readers to your site.

Use HARO: This is a news aggregation site used by reporters to gather information all over the world. If your response is used to write the final story, you will be mentioned in the contributor’s section, and this will be a backlink from HARO.

Promote content and products: There is a high possibility that no one is linking back to your website because they do not know it exists. Use these 10 advanced promotion techniques to get yourself out there in the market.

Use branded techniques: Come up with new branded methods, strategies and checklists, such as the skyscraper technique by Brian Dean. Other people in the industry will begin referring back to this technique.

2. TRUST

Trust is the second most important off page SEO techniques that you should learn how to build from the initial stages of building and growing your online business/website.

Why trust?

Search engines have always created better search algorithms to ensure that they give the searcher the best information on the web, but this is not always 100%.

For this reason, the search engine also looks at the reactions of those customers after they have an encounter with your site, and this brings us to the importance of trust as a ranking factor in off page SEO techniques.

Trust in search engines is interpreted based on five factors: authority, usage metrics, personal, identity and on-page metrics.

5 OFF PAGE SEO TRUST SIGNALS

a) Authority

Authority of a site is measured based on several factors like the ones discussed below;

Page Authority (PA)

It is a score that ranges from 0-100.

This score measures how likely a page will be found in search engine results with higher numbers meaning the higher possibility of showing up in search engine results.

To earn high PA, you need to use several strategies, such as acquiring more backlinks, adding fresh content regularly and making internal linking a habit among others.

In off site SEO, a high PA results in high ranking and website traffic.

Domain Authority (DA)

Similar to PA, it is a score that ranges from 0-100 and describes the relevance of that website/domain in a given subject area or niche/industry.

To Increase your DA, you should use similar strategies like the one mentioned above in PA.

Domain Age

This is the length of time a domain has been operational from the time it was created to the present.

Of course, if you are starting out, this is a blow on your face, but consistency and perseverance is the key to success.

Important Note: To avoid the disadvantages of a new domain name, there are affordable, expired and cheap domains that you can reclaim as explained in that article on how to find them in the right places. Domain Age Checker is a free tool that you can use to measure the age of any domain on the web.

Tools for measuring PA and DA

If you are wondering how you can know the PA and DA of your website in this off page SEO techniques, then use the tools explained below.

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b) Website Usage Metrics

In these off page SEO techniques, website usage metrics are those factors that search engines use to measure users experience on a given website.

Below is a list of five crucial parameters that you should take into consideration in your off page SEO checklist.

Bounce rate

This is a percentage score given based on visitors who come to your site and leave without viewing any page.

In off site SEO, a high bounce rate percentage is bad because it tells search engines that they must be something wrong with that site to make users leave immediately.

The higher the number of returning visitors to your website, this is a positive signal to search engines, which tell them that there is value in that site that makes visitors come back over and over again.

High returning visitors or a higher number of new visitors tells search engines that they come in large numbers because there is high value in your website.

Dwell time

How much time do visitors spend on your site?

Low dwell time is bad for SEO because it tells search engines that your website does not have valuable content or services to make visitors stay.

Follow this article to learn why and how you should increase visitors dwell time on your website.

Tools for measuring website usage metrics

To actualize this off page SEO techniques, all the data on your website usage metrics can be found your Google Analytics account.

If you do not know how to use or set up Google analytics for your site, follow this link Google Analytics use this guide to understand how to make sense of all data in your google analytics Account.

Additionally, you can use several Chrome Extensions, such as Page Analytics to measure these factors directly from your website without login into your Google analytics account.

c) Identity

In off page SEO techniques, identity has everything to do with your brand image.

It involves the colors, designs, content types and other on page SEO metrics, which distinguish your website or online business from others on the internet

Why is branding so important? A market survey conducted by Search Engine Land showed that 70% of consumers using search engines clicked on the search results from a “known retailer.”

Therefore, this means that customers love to be associated with online entrepreneurs who have created an identity in the online space.

Think about it, who wants to visit a blog that changes daily or shifts the subject of focus now and then?

It is confusing, and this is why online businesses with a unique identity have high CTR and better Google rankings.

More so, Google has a unique way of separating brands from “all traits” websites through assigning them structured data site links in search results. Look at the example below for Amazon.

d) Personal

There several off-page SEO personalization settings that will affect your search engine rankings like the ones explained below;

Country: For example, if you are targeting a foreign nation, you should consider having your site translated into their country because search engines interpret keywords differently based on the state of origin. See a case study here.

Searchers history: Do not assume that Google does not know how many times your site and social media profiles for your business are visited. It does, and this is why you should optimize them fully because more visits mean high trust and more value. See image below.

e) On-page metrics

In this off page SEO techniques, search engines will account for several factors related to trust on your on page website factors like the examples given below.

Spam score: Do not be fooled that using shortcut ways to manipulate search results, such as Black Hat SEO will go unnoticed. Spam score which is usually a number between 0-17 tells Google is a website is trustworthy on not.

Statements: Does your site have policy statements, disclosures statements for several things like affiliate links?

Content: Does your site has adult content, too many ads or any other information prohibited in Google’s policy?

4. Promotion

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Most articles do not mention this as a metric that affects off-page SEO, but let’s think about it.

There is a high possibility that your website content is not receiving backlinks, social shares, and brand authority because no one or only a few people know that it exists.

Look at this, according to internet live stats there are over 1.9 billion websites on the web, and approximately 2 million blog posts are published daily.

If you create a new blog post or create a new website and sit back hoping that it will be found naturally, that is a deadly mistake because it will get lost in this ocean of screaming competition.

Unfortunately, only 20% of your target audience is likely to find you naturally, but you have to put extra effort in promotion to get the remaining 80%.

So how does this relate to off page SEO techniques?

From points above, we have determined that off page SEO is all about building links, trust, and social media influence. In all these three tactics, your audience is the critical determinant of your success.

Your audience must know that your content exists and where to find it before they can link to it, share it and even view your site as an authority site that provides value.

Repurpose content: change your content into different formats, such as infographics, video, and audio to reach a broad audience.

Engage in Forums and Niche communities: Leave links to your content in forums, such as Quora and niche communities, such as Reddit.

Influencer marketing and networking: Get noticed through riding in the success of other successful online entrepreneurs in your niche through several tactics, such as blog commenting, guest blogging and backlinks among others.

Web push notifications: help your content to get noticed by users on your website through web push notifications.

Google Analytics: Find all website usage metrics data related to your audience and search engine performance.Find a comprehensive list of all the SEO tools you need to run your online business in that article.

Conlusion

Why off page SEO techniques?

Are you struggling to make even one sale from your website? Struggling to find a client through your website?

I have a secret that can help: search engine traffic.

But there is a problem, you must earn and sweat for this type of traffic through carrying out all on-page SEO, off-page SEO, keyword research and link building activities the right way.

According to live internet stats, there are over 4 billion internet users in the world and out of this about 3 million are making Google searches daily.

This is where the secret is, if only your website content can rank high in Google’s SERP results and be found by even half of these searchers, then you would receive more than enough traffic.

Remember, the secret to ranking high in search engines in be a pro at on site SEO metrics and off page SEO techniques discussed above.

I hope that this guide on off-page SEO has been helpful to you, and you have learned something that you are going to put into practice today. You can also read the three guides below to master SEO more.

Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question below sharing your experience with off page SEO techniques.

Sharing is caring. Kindly share of pin it if you liked the guide.

My name is Hildah Mwende. I am a freelance writer and a coach. My expertise falls in the following subject areas, but it is not limited to them: WordPress, Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing. Find a comprehensive list and description of all my competencies and specialties here.

This post is meant to be an introduction to step three on creating a website for your online business, and that is why it is titled PART ONE.

Before I can give you a step-by-step guide to creating a website for your business, I would like to discuss three things you need to have, and explain what they are and why you need them before starting an online business website.

The three things I am talking about are:

A domain name

Web hosting &

A website building platform

Want to learn more about web hosting, domain names, and web design? If so I think these two books can help you out.

Domain Names

What is a Domain Name?

Before starting any online business, you need to understand the art of creating a website for your business. The site you decide to build must have a name, and this brings us to the topic of domain names.

Just like people and businesses have names, your website should have a unique identity name, which will identify it from others on various online platforms.

Therefore, a domain name is a string of characters or a network address, which users and search engine with use to access your website. For example, Google.com, Facebook.com, and Yahoo.com are all domain names.

Why do you need a Domain Name when creating a website for your business?

Every individual, business or organization with an internet presence must have one before starting an online business.

It will increase your search engine positioning.

It will protect your copyright

It makes your business look professional, and this builds credibility and brand awareness among your audience.

Is domain name and URL the same thing?

If you are a beginner in the concepts of starting an online business and creating a website for your business, it is most likely you will use these terms interchangeably to mean the same.

However, they are not same although they have an interdependent relationship. Let me illustrate their differences with examples.

Academicexperts.com, Google.org, and Yahoo.cu.uk are all domain names, while www.academicexperts.com, https://www.google.org, and http://yahoo.cu.uk are URLs.

Therefore, a domain name in the unique name of your website, while a URL is a full address used in the search engines to identify your site.

What are domain name extensions?

Let me explain with an example, Google.com, Linux.org, Europa.info, Yahoo.co.uk are all domain names. So the extension in them are .com, .org, .info and .co.uk respectively.

What common terms related to Domain Names should you know before creating a website for your business?

WHOIS Data: This is a database that records all information related to your domain name, such as registration details, domain registrar details and all other technical and personal information you provide during registration. ICANN requires that this information is made available for public use by domain registrars. To avoid your details leaking to the public you should consider buying domain name privacy service when purchasing your hosting package.

Domain Privacy: This is a service offered by most hosting providers that will protect your WHOIS info from being accessible to the public where people can find personal info, such as telephone numbers and email addresses.

ICANN: Stands for “Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers.” It is the body that oversees the numbering of IP addresses, domain name ownership and all activities related to the two.

IDN: These are domain names written in foreign languages, such as Chinese and Japanese among others.

DNS: Stands for Domain Name Server, and is the system that translates your domain name into an IP address for machines and back to a normal address for humans. If you are interested in the technical stuff of understanding how domains work, use this article Domain Name Servers and the image below.

Free vs. Paid Domains

This answers the question of whether you should use a free or paid domain name where creating a website for your business.

A paid domain is unique, and you only get it from domain registrars or web hosting providers.

On the other hand, a free domain is a sub-domain you get from website builders, such as WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace among others.

For example, Google.com is a paid domain, while Google.weebly.com is a free sub-domain provided by Weebly website builder.

I believe you are starting an online business with a long-term goal of branding it and growing it into a multi-million dollar empire. Right?

If that is the case, you should avoid using a free sub-domain when creating a website for your business at all cost because of the following reasons;

You do not own the domain, the issuer owns it, and if you decide to switch service providers or platforms, you cannot migrate with the sub-domain. Too bad right?

The free domain contains the name of the provider, such as YahooExperts.WordPress.com. Seriously, this makes it look ugly and unprofessional with the term WordPress on it. Why not chuck out a few coins to get a professional looking domain, such as YahooExperts.com?

How to Choose a Domain Name: Quick Tips and Tools

Extension: If you are starting your online business, stick with .COM when creating a website for your business because it’s the most established and credible domain extension. Most sites on the internet us it. Additionally, domains with this extension are memorable and less technical, which is favorable to your audience.

Length & Simplicity: When creating a website for your business, you should choose a domain name that is memorable and attractive? In that case, try to stick with less than 15 characters. It will be terrible losing users because your domain is too long and complicated to type in the browser and too hard to remember.

Special Characters: Avoid special characters, such as hyphens and other signs at all costs in your domain name. Stick to numbers and mostly letters in most cases when creating a website for your online business.

Keywords: Where you can, it is considered a proper search engine optimization (SEO) practice including your target keywords in your domain. This is not a must, but essential if where possible.

Take advantage Domain name generators: The good thing is that there are a countless number of tools, such as Domain Name generators you can use to make the process of choosing a domain name for your website simpler. My personal favorite is NameVine, for checking domain availability and NameStation, for crowd-sourcing domain name ideas.

How and Where to Buy a Domain Name

Before starting an online business its good to know that on average a domain name costs around $14.99 per year.

Note that the price will vary based on the domain name extension. In this example, I have sampled for prices for the .COM extension.

Remember that if you add other services provided by these registrars, such as Domain Name Privacy this price will go higher.

When creating a website for your online business, you can get a domain name from two places: Domain Name Registrars and your Web Hosting Service.

The image below shows several examples of domain name registrars.

There are many domain name registrars out there. I have summarized a few examples in the table below.

The second place you can get a domain name when creating a website for your online business is from a web hosting service provider.

Remember you will need web hosting for your website, and many web hosting providers offer domain name registration services free.

Some examples of hosting companies that support domain registration and even offer free domain registration include Bluehost, SiteGround, Hostgator and many other web hosting companies.

Web Hosting

What is Web Hosting?

Web hosting services are vital when starting an online business. Before beginning the process of creating a website for your online business, you need to understand that you will need a web hosting platform.

Web hosting is a service provided by a web host or service provider. These providers have servers and data centers that store your website resources.

Your website information will need a place where they can be saved, and these are the servers provided by a web host.

When internet users enter your URL or domain name on the browsers, the search engines crawl all the servers available on the internet and delivers the results to the users, which will be your web pages.

Therefore, a web hosting provider will provide you with resources, such as a data center and servers which will allow internet users to access your website.

Types of Web Hosting

1. Free Web Hosting

Sometimes you want to start an online business so badly, but you cannot afford the budget involved.

The good news is that there is the availability of free web hosting you can use when creating a website for your business.

From personal experience, I would advise you not to use this kind of web hosting when starting an online business.

Firstly, you will get a sub-domain, which I explained above that it looks unprofessional.

Secondly, you will have limited access to features, which might discourage your progression.

In this case, I think you should consider self-hosted web hosting options like the ones discussed below.

Pros

Cons

It is free no costs

Less secure

You can terminate its use anytime

You will have access to limited features

Offers an excellent platform for learning, especially when starting out

Customization flexibility is low

Availability of templates and other free resources you need when creating a website for your online business.

Many place ads on your site, which can put off your customers

Unreliable because of no customer support

2. Shared Web Hosting

Starting an online business with a long-term strategy of growing it into a brand will require you to invest a few bucks into buying a web hosting plan before creating a website for your business.

This is the most common type of web hosting, let me illustrate with a real-life example. This type of web hosting can be likened to an apartment with 100 tenants all sharing resources, such as parking space, water points, and other recreational facilities.

Therefore, in shared hosting, multiple websites utilize one single server. The upside of this is that it is pocket-friendly since the cost is shared among various users.

However, the downside is that it can easily cause instability on your website because you may be sharing the space with sites with higher traffic.

Shared hosting is a great place to go when starting an online business because it is affordable.

The good thing is that most shared hosting providers also have other types of hosting where you can upgrade to when your website grows and begins to receive higher traffic.

Cheap and affordable (you can get it with as low as $2 to $25 per month).

The load times of your website will be slower.

Has an in-built cPanel with a simple user interface, which allows you to make changes quickly.

There are higher chances of instability because other sites on the server have higher traffic

You do not need any technical experience to manage this kind of web hosting because everything comes set in the hosting package.

Your site is vulnerable to the risks of other sites. Though this is rare and, most host providers take care of it.

There are limited customizations you can perform on the server resources as an end user.

3. Dedicated Web Hosting

Dedicated Web hosting is the complete opposite of shared hosting. In this type hosting, you do not share the server resources with anyone else.

The upside of using this type of web hosting when creating a website for your business is that you will experience high load time. However, the downside is that it’s costly.

In other words, you become the sole owner of that server until your hosting plan expires, which you can renew.

You have full control of customizing all resources, hardware, and software on the server as you wish.

If you are non-techie and do not want to shoulder all the burden of managing this kind of server, some host provides managed dedicated web hosting where you will not have to worry about the technical stuff.

You have full control to make any customizations you want on the server resources.

Come with higher management responsibility, such as OS updates and other activities.

More secure, especially for handling confidential information, such as E-commerce websites.

Costs higher than Shared hosting in the range of approximately $60 to $800 per month.

It is Reliable in regards to speed and performance.

4. VPS Web Hosting

VPS stands for Very Private Servers web hosting.

This type of web hosting mimics the features of both shared and dedicated web hosting.

So this form of web hosting is like a mediator of dedicated and shared hosting.

Instead of being on the two extremes of sharing resources and owning your server, you can choose VPS, which allows you to enjoy goodies from both sides.

Unlike in shared hosting, where sharing of the server is random, in VPS the server is partitioned, such that you will have access to your operating system, disc space, bandwidth and other server resources. Yes, you will have some form of ownership, but the access to these resources is limited than in dedicated hosting.

Therefore, creating a website for your online business with VPS hosting is like living in a Condo, where the estate is divided into small privately owned units.

Less costly than dedicated web hosting, its prices range $10 to $70 per month

More expensive than shared hosting

Allows customization of the server to meet your needs

A high possibility of poor allocation of resources by the host provider, especially if purchased from a bad host.

Scalable, you can add other resources as you grow.

Slow load times than in Dedicated hosting

It is semi-managed, this friendly for non-techies

5. Cloud Web Hosting

This one operates on a different model altogether. While other forms of hosting use physical servers and data centers, this one uses virtual resources.

Dedicated hosting is the solution when your server outgrows the resources provided, but it is usually very costly. In this case, cloud hosting is the cheaper alternative.

In this hosting resources are stored on multiple virtual servers and are rendered based on a request by different cloud users. This reduces the possibility of experiencing downtimes in the website, which are common in physical web hosting servers.

It is non-scalable and limited because the architecture is configured for WordPress.

You will get extra services, such as daily backups, automatic updates, and developers tools

Final thoughts on the types of web hosting

If you are starting an online business, shared hosting is okay to settle for when creating a website for your business. It is wallet-friendly, and some hosts, such as SiteGround and Bluehost give more than enough to downplay the cons of this hosting.

Also, if you plan to use WordPress as your website platform, feel free to consider going for managed WordPress hosting plans.

As your site’s traffic grows and resources exceed the server space, you should consider upgrading to dedicated web hosting. However, in the case where you cannot afford to rent a whole server to yourself, VPS and Cloud hosting are cheaper options to dedicated hosting.

Remember that the hosting you choose will also depend on the type of website/online business you are starting. For example, if you are starting a blog, portfolio website or simple company website shared or managed WordPress hosting is okay to go with at the beginning before your business grows, but an e-commerce store will need either VPS, cloud or dedicated hosting.

In summary, when creating a website for your business, you need to choose a web hosting service, which is within your budget and allows for the customization to meet your business needs.

Factors to Consider when Choosing a Web Hosting Service Provider

Pricing: Make sure that the best option is pocket-friendly, affordable and reliable based on your budget.

Area of Specialization: Every website is created to serve different purposes. For example, an e-commerce site is not similar to a WordPress blog. For this reason, when creating a website for your business, you should choose a host that specializes in your target business model.

Support: It is essential to choose a hosting provider with a solid positive reputation when creating a website for your business. They must have a wide variety of ways you can reach them in case there is a problem, such as live chat, email, and phone call.

Features and Add-ons: For example, some hosts, such as SiteGround offers a free domain, free website transfer, free SSL and free CDN while most other hosts charge for these features. Read a full SitGround review here in this article. Therefore, the best hosting provider who offers most features free or at a low affordable cost.

Reputation and customer reviews: Visit review sites, such as Trust Pilot and social media to find out what customers are saying about that hosting provider.

Room to grow: Look for a hosting provide that also supports higher hosting plans than your current one so that you can upgrade to them later as your business expands and receives more traffic.

Hardware: This has to do with all technologies related to speed, servers, and uptime. The best host must have 100% uptime and equipment that supports backup, security and other processes that make web hosting smooth. Bluehost and SiteGround have a leading market reputation in the best hardware and performance records in the industry.

Refund Policy: You might get disappointed by the services of a given host, and this is why it is essential to choose one with a money-back-guarantee to ensure that your money will not get wasted and lost in case you find a better option.

User friendliness: A web host C-panel and website should have a simple user interface, which is easy to follow even for newbies.

Website Platforms

Now after you purchase a domain and hosting, the story does not end there in the process of creating a website for your online business.

You will need a platform where you can build your website from and manage all pages and other activities on your site.

There are three major types of website management and building platforms:

Coding from scratch

Using a website builder

Using a content management software (CMS)

Coding From Scratch

This is a method used mostly by web developers and designers.

If you are creating a business website for your business with this option, you will need to have prior knowledge of several languages, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript and other database elements, such as MySQL.

There are several platforms you can learn about this method of creating websites, such as Codeacademy and Udemy.

Pros

Cons

Less repetition of code, which makes a site to load faster.

Need technical expertise in coding, web design and web development.

Low margin of error

It is costly to hire a developer

It is easier to solve errors and problems that occur along the way on a cheaper budget

Time and energy consuming

Using a Website Builder

There are many site builders out there you can use when creating a website for your online business, but the most common three are Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace. You can find an in-depth comparison of the three in this article.

These are drag and drop builders where you do not need any coding experience to use them. You can put up a website in few hours just by using these simple platforms.

If you choose to use this option when creating a website for your business, below are some pros and cons you should take into consideration.

Pros

Cons

Even non-techies can use them because no coding skills are required.

Templates look generic and common if you want a unique feel look elsewhere

Cheaper than hiring a designer

Slow loading time

Flexibility, you can export your website pages to other platforms.

Limited features

Fast to create a website with the drag and drop tools and a wide range of templates.

Most have poor customer support

Using Content Management Systems (CMS)

These are platforms for both non-techies and developed designers who understand HTML, CSS, and PHP. Do not worry you do not have to understand or know either of this when creating a website for your business.

Can reduce load time because it uses server resources as opposed to static pages

Most are open source and free

High risk of hacking if not well secured

Have a broad ecosystem of themes, plugins and other templates

Limited functionalities compared to coding from scratch.

Allow for a full range of customizations

Need investment in time and resources for management.

Makes content editing easy

Regular updates of code

SEO friendly

Conlusion

I will repeat what I said at the beginning just to emphasize this whole process of starting an online business. Remember I said that building your online business idea from scratch is done in phases and small little steps.

Feel free to leave a comment below asking a question or even better provide a suggestion of a post you would like me to write about.

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My name is Hildah Mwende. I am a freelance writer and a coach. My expertise falls in the following subject areas, but it is not limited to them: WordPress, Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing. Find a comprehensive list and description of all my competencies and specialties here.